In an audit of the execution of the Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR) by local administration entities until March 15, 2024, the Court of Auditors (TdC) identified “significant delays in various projects, some of which were no longer compatible with the program’s deadlines.”
As of March 15 of this year, local administration entities had approved 2,766 local projects valued at 2,140.7 million euros, which accounts for 13% of the PRR’s total.
“These investments are primarily concentrated in the areas of housing, social responses, and infrastructures,” the document released today highlights.
Until March 15, 2024, municipalities held 88% of the projects and 82% of the financing (1,745.3 million euros) awarded to local administration.
In absolute terms, the 35 municipalities in metropolitan areas absorbed half of this approved funding for all municipalities in the mainland (869.2 million euros), with the Lisbon Metropolitan Area receiving 596.9 million euros and Porto 272.3 million euros.
However, when calculated per capita, the interior and less populous municipalities tend to record higher financing values.
In the Housing component, municipalities had, until March 15, an approved total funding of 882.4 million euros, representing 40% of the total PRR funds allocated to this component by that date.
For Social Responses, by the same date, approximately 270 million euros were approved, accounting for 41% of the total PRR financing designated for this component.
Most of this amount (73%) was allocated to the development of projects within disadvantaged communities in metropolitan areas.
Municipalities also had 145.4 million euros approved to strengthen the capacity of the National Health Service (SNS) in primary healthcare, continuous and palliative care, hospitals, and the digital transition in healthcare, representing 14% of the total PRR funding for this component.
“It was noted that in some cases, especially those submitted in 2022, there is some delay in the progress of operations,” the report describes, emphasizing that “there is no evidence” of any mapping of prioritized facilities and equipment concerning the construction of new health units with the funding provided to municipalities.
The total amount assigned to the Culture sector was 82.2 million euros (30% of the total PRR funding allocated to this component), yet regarding the analyzed investment operations, the deadlines were not met, revealing “significant delays in all cases compared to the projected timelines.”
“In some cases, given the work execution schedule, it is unlikely that the investments will be completed before March 2026, the deadline determined by the PRR,” it is emphasized.
By mid-March last year, 4% of the mainland’s parishes had 121 approved applications in the PRR, representing total funding of 31.4 million euros, about half of which (15.6 million euros) related to five projects focused on housing investments, particularly in the parish of Benfica, Lisbon.
The TdC found that contractual deadlines were exceeded, although “assuming that the presented schedules are realistic,” execution remains “compatible with the deadline defined in the PRR.”
Regarding the parishes, it also noted “situations where technical, administrative, and financial capacity and/or an adequate internal control system for the investments” were not verified.
The TdC also detected various failures in the collection of information and evidence about the evolution of local administration investments, as the PRR Information Management System (SCI) “does not completely, up-to-date, and accurately reflect the financial data of investments, or the associated public contracts,” to be executed by local administration entities.
The Court recommended that the various involved entities improve the quality of the financial information related to the execution of investments and regularly fulfill monitoring obligations, which would facilitate the evaluation and auditing of the completed progress.
